Hey guys,
I was thinking what if it was possible to have Multi-tick battles? The basic idea is that there is a limit to how many combat rounds that can occur in each turn. The basic result is that in the late game, huge battles might take several ticks to wind down.
The benefit to this is that players can strategically and tactically try to stall each other. For both offensive and defensive, they can use the extra ticks to pull in reinforcements which normally wouldn’t arrive in time.
Defensively, they can try to force an invasion force to stall/slow down with a huge battle, so they can prepare a counter offensive. They can gather garrisons together to try to stall a raider force so a smack down fleet can catch up.
Offensively, the player must decide if committing their forces to a battle which last for several ticks (or even an entire cycle) is worth losing mobility and initiative on that front, and strategically, causing a significant portion of their fleet be essentially stuck in position. They can also try to force the defending player to commit to a compromising position, then launch raids behind their main forces.
Some ideas for how this limit is set is just by game settings. It could also be set by technology (research more technology to fight more rounds per tick) or based on the number of carriers (say, the fleet with the more carriers define how many combat rounds were fought, at a rate of 10 * carrier rounds per tick?)
This idea might also be considered for Proteus. What do you guys think?
EDIT: And here’s how it’s like Stalingrad.
The soviet player kept pouring in defenders into the city, forcing the germans fleet to remain in combat over extended, until the soviets was able to organize a counter offensive which recaptured the sector and destroyed the by now much diminished german fleet.